Hannibal, postquam est nuntiatum milites regios in vestibulo esse, postico fugere conatus, ut id quoque occursu militum obsaeptum sensit et omnia circa clausa custodiis dispositis esse, venenum, quod multo ante praeparatum ad tales habebat casus, {5} poposcit. ‘Liberemus,’ inquit, ‘diuturna cura populum Romanum, quando mortem senis exspectare longum censent. Nec magnam nec memorabilem ex inermi proditoque Flamininus victoriam feret.’ Exsecratus deinde in caput regnumque {10} Prusiae, et hospitales deos violatae ab eo fidei testes invocans, poculum exhausit. . . . Trium clarissimorum suae cuiusque gentis virorum non tempore magis congruente comparabilis mors videtur esse, quam quod nemo eorum satis dignum splendore {15} vitae exitum habuit. Nam primum omnes non in patrio solo mortui nec sepulti sunt. Veneno absumpti Hannibal et Philopoemen; exsul Hannibal, proditus ab hospite, captus Philopoemen in carcere et in vinculis exspiravit. Scipio etsi non exsul neque {20} damnatus, die tamen dicta, ad quam non adfuerat reus, absens citatus, voluntarium non sibimet ipse solum sed etiam funeri suo exsilium indixit. LIVY, xxxix, 51, 52 (sel.) +Context.+ After Zama Hannibal held the highest office (_Suffete_ = L. _praetura_) at Carthage, and effected useful democratic reforms. However, his political enemies denounced him to Rome _as making plans for a new war_, and in 195 B.C. he was forced to flee from Carthage and took refuge with Antiochus. After Magnesia, H. found for seven years a safe asylum with Prusias, king of Bithynia; but the Romans could not be at ease so long as H. lived, and Flamininus the Liberator of Greece undertook the inglorious quest of demanding the surrender of Hannibal. [Linenotes: 13-15. +non tempore magis congruente quam+ = _not so much in coincidence of_ (+congruente+, lit. _agreeing with_) _date as_. --R. 18. +Philopoemen+, the heroic chief of the Achaean League, was taken prisoner by Dinocrates, imprisoned in a dungeon at Messene (+in carcere+, l. 19), and compelled to drink poison. 20-23. +Scipio+ was accused, at the instigation of Cato, by the tribune Naevius (185 B.C.) of having been bribed by Antiochus to procure for him favourable conditions of peace. Too proud to defend himself against such a charge, Scipio retired to his country-seat at Liternum, where _by a voluntary act he consigned both himself and his grave to exile_ (+voluntarium ... indixit+). ‘_Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes._’ Epitaph of Scipio, written by himself.] C44 _M. Porcius Cato, 234-149 B.C._ (1)